Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Best Self Magazine

    Mindfulness and Race: Bearing Witness to Our Racial Distress

    by Ruth King May 14, 2018 5 minutes
    Racial distress, racism, Mindfulness and Race by Ruth King, photograph of birds by Adrian Kirkegaard
    Photograph by Adrian Kirkegaard

    Mindfulness doesn’t erase the reality of racial distress; however, it allows us to explore the question of whether we are contributing to suffering or to freedom

    —

    If we turn our attention inward, we often feel the soreness, tenderness, and vulnerability from the habitual ways we have met the rough edges of racial distress, and it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Although these feelings may be difficult to metabolize, it is possible to do so. Our thoughts and feelings are not permanent states; rather, they are crucial experiences to attend to, and it begins with understanding our minds. This is the role of mindfulness meditation.

    Mindfulness has its roots in the 2,600-year-old tradition of Buddhism.

    The practice of mindfulness meditation supports us in experiencing more mental ease and harmony. It does not help us get rid of racial ignorance or ill will, nor will

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from Best Self Magazine

    Best Self Magazine3 min readCrime & Violence
    An Invitation to Peace
    Estimated reading time: 4 minutes — We live in a world where war coverage is live, social media keyboard warriors are loud and fierce, and racism and “anti-thisism” and “anti-thatism” ring loudly in our ears. Every day, we are bombarded with negativ
    Best Self Magazine4 min read
    When a Pregnancy Follows a Loss
    Estimated reading time: 6 minutes — She was a beautiful baby, with long black eyelashes and big dark lips. I will never know the sound of her coo or the color of her eyes. They never opened. My first child was born dead. Stillborn. She moved and gre
    Best Self Magazine7 min read
    How I Left: Reflections on My Journey into Marriage…and Out
    Estimated reading time: 10 minutes — My grandmother was fourteen when a man in her Southern Italian village asked to marry her. He was twenty-eight, a stranger to Gramma. She said, No! But her mother told her, “Marry him. He’ll take you to America.”

    Related Books & Audiobooks